Full of Surprises
by MayFairy
Summary: Doctor Who AU. The Doctor has seen many incredible sights in her travels throughout the galaxy - but she isn't sure she's seen anything that compares to the way Emma Swan demolishes carnival food. Also, the human blonde is able to climb down Ferris wheel frames to chase after alien criminals. Who knew? 4th in an out-of-order ficlet series about Doctor!Regina and Companion!Emma.
**Set before _It's Cold Outside (But I'm Just Fine)_. The earliest fic, chronologically, so far. **

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The Doctor has seen many, many things. Hundreds of supernovas, sometimes all at once. A one armed man win a duel against five assassins who all had machetes. Daisy Ridley taking on Achilles in an arm wrestling contest and winning (long story). She has also seen monsters made entirely of snot, waded through more sewer systems than she can count, and been to a planet where the people communicate only through carefully controlled farts.

Somehow, none of those things are as impressive, or as disturbing, as the sight of one Emma Swan shovelling three corn dogs into her mouth at once.

For a moment the Doctor simply stares at her, but after that she has to look away because it's simply too bizarre and makes her gut revolt.

"You know, I believe the intended consumption is one fried abomination at a time," she says, "To avoid unnecessary asphyxiation. But by all means, prioritise speeding a horde of chemicals and calories to your fragile human stomach over your own well being."

It takes almost ten seconds before Emma is able to answer. "Is that your way of saying you're worried about me?"

"Hardly," the Doctor replies, rolling her eyes, "But should you meet your demise in my presence I'd likely feel some moral obligation to hang around and fill out the paperwork."

"You probably _like_ paperwork," Emma points out.

The Doctor just snorts. "I most certainly do not. I'm a renegade alien time-traveller, I have _far_ better things to be doing."

"If you ask me, renegade alien traveller is kind of like saying you're unemployed, since the whole point is that you kind of _don't_ have better things to be doing."

The Doctor gives her companion one of her more fearsome glares, but the blonde just smugly smiles back. The nerve of this human, honestly. On the bright side, the corn dogs are nowhere in sight - and the Doctor is going to now happily forget they ever existed.

"Do you like cotton candy?" Emma asks as they approach another stall.

"...I've honestly no idea," the Doctor says honestly.

The way Emma's eyes widen is almost funny. "Wait, are you saying you've never had cotton candy before?"

"I have," she retorts, wishing she didn't sound so defensive, "But it was a long time ago, and I was...different."

The look she gets from Emma is a sceptical one. "Different how?"

They've only known each other for two weeks. It's been an intense two weeks - because when is her life anything but - and the Doctor likes to think they've already built quite a rapport. But explaining the whole _when my species gets near to death we rewrite every cell in our body and walk away with a totally new face and surface personality_ thing is still a long way down the track. Especially given that the Doctor is very attached to her current face and general self and therefore has no intentions of Emma having to find out the hard way. She intends to be a short, overly defensive Puerto Rican woman for a long time yet.

So instead of answering her companion's question, the Doctor just sighs with defeat. "Look, Miss Swan, are you going to buy us the cotton candy or not?"

Emma just holds out her hand. With a roll of her eyes, the Doctor digs in her pockets to pull out some cash, and the blonde takes it with a satisfied smirk before approaching the stall.

In her absence the Doctor scans the crowd, taking in all the families and children and happy couples. Humans in one of their more admirable and understated moments, which is somewhat ironic given how _loud_ all the colours and sounds around them are. Her eyes on the back of the head of a small brunet boy who reminds her just a little too much of someone she has spent a very long time pushing to the back of her mind, and she swallows hard.

"For you," Emma's voice says from beside her, unknowingly saving her from the chasm of painful memories with the simplicity of two words.

The Doctor whips around to look at her, and the blonde is holding out the stick of cotton candy like it is the most glorious gift she could be bestowing on the other woman.

"Thanks," the alien says to her, taking the stick delicately and eyeing the pink fluff with just a touch of wariness.

"Do you like Ferris wheels?"

"Not particularly," the Doctor says, "But neither do I bear them any ill will. Is this your way of asking if we can go on the one here?"

"I figure we might get a great view of the ocean from the top," Emma replies, shrugging.

"Oh." It's something she hadn't considered. Perhaps not all of Emma Swan's ideas are immature or stupid. "In that case, lead the way."

That's how they end up shoulder to shoulder in a Ferris wheel seat with sticks of cotton candy. As the Doctor gingerly pulls off pieces of the treat to put in her mouth, she is surprised to realise that she's actually enjoying herself a lot more than she expected to when Emma had first suggested they attend a carnival - so much so that when the Ferris wheel breaks down, stranding them at the top, she isn't even mildly phased.

"Told you this was a good idea."

The Doctor doesn't look away from the water and how the sunlight makes it shimmer. "Bragging isn't an attractive quality, Miss Swan. Just eat your cotton candy and enjoy the view."

"I am," Emma says simply, which given the fact that the Doctor can feel her eyes on _her_ has to be a lie, albeit one the Time Lady can't work out a reason for.

When she finally looks back at Emma, there's an odd look in her eye.

"What?" The Doctor asks, frowning at her.

"Why do I get the feeling that before you met me, you didn't do this sort of thing?" When the brunette just arches an eyebrow, Emma adds, "You know. Just letting yourself have fun."

"I have fun-"

"Your idea of fun seems to be getting into fights with alien squids or robots," Emma says, "Which for the record, _so_ doesn't count."

The Doctor makes a face. "I don't see why you believe yourself to be at liberty to decide what does and doesn't count as an acceptable hobby in what happens to be _my_ life, Miss Swan," she replies, pulling off a large chunk of cotton candy and eating it.

"Hey, whatever floats your boat, Doctor," Emma is quick to say, lifting her hands and cotton candy in a placating gesture, "Or spaceship. I'm just saying that you need other stuff. Like this. Days out where nothing bad happens-"

That is, of course, the moment where the Doctor happens to look down and spot the unfortunately familiar form of an infamous alien criminal making his way through the crowd. Even worse, he has a package under his arm. Which, by his track record, is likely filled with any possible sort of illegal or dangerous contraband.

"Quiet," the Doctor says to Emma so firmly that the blonde instantly shuts up, sensing that something has changed. "We need to get down. Right now."

"The guy said it would be at least another five minutes-"

"That's not good enough!"

"What's the problem, Doctor?" Emma is immediately ready to spring into action.

The Doctor points to the young man who has just gone past the cotton candy stand. "The man with the box, can you see him?" Emma just replies in affirmation. "His name is Will Scarlet, and he's wanted in five galaxies for trafficking of dangerous objects. There's no telling what he could be carrying in that box or how many people it could end up hurting."

"Okay, got it," Emma says, nodding, and before the Doctor can say anything else, Emma has put the stick of cotton candy between her teeth and leapt from their carriage.

" _Miss Swan!"_ The Doctor shouts with alarm, leaning over to see her companion clutching the metal frame of the Ferris wheel and beginning to climb her way down. "What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?!"

Emma, unable to reply because of the cotton candy stick in her mouth, just grins and uses her eyebrows to convey just how impressive she thinks she is.

As she continues to climb down and eventually makes it to the ground, the Doctor has to internally admit that she's not entirely wrong on that front. In her heels, the Time Lady could never have pulled that off herself, and even without them, whether she could have succeeded is highly debatable.

"You are _impossible_ ," the Doctor tells her forcefully, and Emma just grins up at her before dashing into the crowd after Will Scarlet. _This girl might just yet be the death of me_.

A few minutes later, the Ferris wheel finally starts working again and the Doctor is able to get to the ground. Vocal protests nearby immediately give Will's location away because no one else has an accent quite so horrific (though to be fair, it's more of a translation issue from his obscenely primitive native tongue than anything else).

"Bleeding hell, get off!"

When she reaches him, she is rewarded with the immensely amusing sight of Emma having gotten him on the ground with his hands behind his back, sitting on him for good measure. She looks up at the Doctor and grins.

"Hey, Doctor," she says, "You can relax, I got him."

Will stiffens at the word Doctor and looks up from the ground to see just who is standing over him. He curses in about five different alien languages. "Oh for fuck's sake, not _you_."

The Doctor smirks. "Yes, me."

They head back to the TARDIS and hand Will Scarlet and his box of extremely dangerous hallucinogenic drugs over to the Shadow Proclamation ("Wait, so in space, the police are _rhinos_?!" - "Judoon, Miss Swan. Please try not to be culturally insensitive."). Once that's over with, they go to a planet famous for its ice cream and the Doctor treats Emma to a triple scoop for a job well done.

All in all, the Doctor considers, a rather good day. And she has the feeling that Emma Swan is going to continue to surprise her.

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 **And hey, an actual appearance from another OUAT character! I have plans for Rumple, Tink, Ruby and Mal (ESPECIALLY Mal, and you guys are gonna love who she is in this verse, feel free to guess if you're versed in DW stuff), but somehow Will wormed his way in here.**

 **Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought!**


End file.
